Take it from this California-born and reared native, the Golden State was once the greatest place in the world. “Once,” that’s the key word. The California I grew up in didn’t have today’s rampant urban sprawl, paralyzing traffic jams, killer criminal gangs, or widespread crushing poverty, the by-product of one of the nation’s highest income inequality gaps where the top one percent earns nearly 30 times more than the lower 99 percent.

For months now, Americans have listened to President Donald Trump’s self-congratulatory bravado about how swimmingly his “Buy American, Hire American” executive order is doing. If only the swamp didn’t keep getting in President Trump’s way.

Hurricane Irma, the monster storm that barreled up the Florida coast, sent millions fleeing its destruction and left millions of others without power. Before it diminishes, it could wreak more havoc. Officials estimate that at least six million have been ordered evacuated from Florida and parts of Georgia. Atlanta is, for the first time in its history, under a tropical storm warning.

For many Russian tourists headed to Miami, the lure isn’t to bask on the sunny beaches or to shop at the luxury malls, but rather to give birth to an American citizen child. The practice of foreign nationals coming to the U.S. for the express purpose of delivering a citizen baby on American soil, jus soli, has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, and is disparagingly referred to as the birth tourism industry.

If President Trump had done what candidate Trump promised repeatedly to do about deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA), then the current commotion would never have had a chance to develop. Had President Trump, as he vowed to do, ended DACA “on day one,” then immigration advocates wouldn’t have had time to organize, lobby and generate a sympathetic media blitz. With a one-sentence memo to U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services, President Trump could have scotched DACA forever. In 2012, President Obama’s memorandum to USCIS gave birth to DACA, and President Trump could have killed it the same way, a memo – over and done; let’s move on.

Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populated with more than 10 million residents, is in an emergency state, per Governor Jerry Brown’s declaration. The largest inferno in Los Angeles’ history has forced hundreds from their homes.

Don’t be deceived by media reporting about the jobs market. Economists like to say that the monthly data is encouraging or shows improvement. A lot of smoke is thrown out at the unsuspecting about seasonal adjustments, monthly revisions or weather-related declines that, when the jobs numbers are too miserable to overlook, is intended to distract.

California Governor Jerry Brown hinted to Meet the Press recently that he had concerns about the California Values Act, SB 54, the bill that would severely limit cooperation between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. SB 54’s author, California Senate President pro tempore Kevin de Leon, an unbending illegal immigrant advocate, proudly described the bill as “freezing out ICE.” Federal immigration authorities would be barred from entering most public places even if known criminals were present.

President Trump’s pardon of former Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has set off a firestorm of criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. At the core of the Arpaio controversy, both during his six terms in office from 1993 to 2016, and after his 2017 criminal contempt of court conviction, has been immigration law enforcement.

Showing backbone where the Bush and Obama White Houses had been spineless, the Trump administration will impose visa sanctions on four tiny countries – Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea and Sierra Leone – that have steadfastly refused to take back their convicted criminal nationals.

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Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit membership organization that relies solely on donations. CAPS works to formulate and advance policies and programs designed to stabilize the population of California, the U.S. and the world at levels which will preserve the environment and a good quality of life for all.